December 2016 Dividend Income – $268.88

Overall, 2016 was a great year for building our dividend income stream. Each month of the year we saw growth in our portfolio.

We also were able to invest over $10,000 of new money into the stock market. That was less than we had hoped, but still a great accomplishment for our family.

These new investments will eventually grow and compound, just like those from last year and the year before.

To wrap up the year, I wanted to take the time to post our latest dividend income results.

I find this to be helpful as it shows the small steps we are taking in building this income stream. Since we are not loaded with unlimited cash to invest, my wife and I simply invest what we can one month at a time.

As you can see below, consistently investing and growing your portfolio will provide awesome returns over the course of several years.

2016 December Dividend Income Summary

The month of December is probably my favorite month for reporting dividend income.

It often sets a new record for dividend income, despite falling just short this year. And obviously … December closes out the calendar year and gives us a picture of our annual dividend income.

While no records were broke this past month, it was still the best December we have ever recorded for dividends. Our income grew by over 13% from the same month last year.

I had originally figured we would set a new all time record in December, but forgot that WalMart doesn’t pay a December dividend. Instead they wait until January … which threw my projections off by about $25!

Take a look at the growth we have seen over the past 5 years based on December dividend income results –

Conclusion

The dividend income earned in December ($268.88) was up over 13% from the same time last year. These increases were from a combination of new investments made, dividend reinvestment’s, and company dividend increases.

We earned a total of $1,918.16 in dividends for 2016 … which is $330+ short of our original goal.

Looking back … it seems like we overreached a bit on our goals. We probably should have set our goals about $150 less, which we still would not have hit.

Ultimately, we didn’t hit our new investment targets for the year, with just under $11,000 invested in the stock market. We have major plans to bump up our investments this new year … which should help give our dividend income a big push in 2017!

How was your dividend income in December?

Full Disclosure – At the time of this writing, we owned shares in the following stocks noted in this post – AAPL, ADM, AFL, CSCO, ED, EMR, INTC, JNJ, K, KHC, KO, MCD, MSFT, NSC, O, OHI, TGT, UL and XOM. The material above is not a recommendation to buy. Please do your own research on a company before deciding to invest.